Judge Weighs Question of Marijuana Hash Oil Legality in Colorado

A court hearing Wednesday to determine the legal status of marijuana hash oil in post-legalization Colorado resulted in the judge turning up his hands and shrugging his shoulders in exasperation.

The hearing in Denver District Court was to decide whether a man named Paul Mannaioni, who was one of three people charged after an explosion at a southwest Denver warehouse, can be prosecuted for the crime of manufacturing marijuana concentrate. The man’s attorney, Rob Corry, who helped write Colorado’s marijuana-legalization law, said Mannaioni can’t be charged because Colorado’s constitution now protects the personal possession of marijuana and the processing of marijuana plants.

“The court system is not to be used for marijuana regulation anymore,” Corry said.

The Colorado attorney general argues Mannaioni can be charged because — by virtue of a curiously placed comma in Amendment 64, the legalization measure — the protection for marijuana does not cover cannabis “oil,” like hash oil. The measure says its definition for marijuana, “does not include industrial hemp, nor does it include fiber produced from the stalks, oil, or cake made from the seeds of the plant. … ”